Russian Official Says Humanitarian Situation In Ukraine Continues To Deteriorate

JAKARTA - A senior Russian Defense Ministry official said on Saturday that the humanitarian situation in Ukraine was steadily deteriorating.

The Russian official blamed the actions of Ukrainian fighters, the RIA news agency reported. Russian troops have surrounded several Ukrainian cities.

Eyewitnesses also reported that Russian troops launched intense shelling.

"Unfortunately the humanitarian situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate rapidly, and in some cities, it has entered into a catastrophe", RIA quoted the head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, Mikhail Mizintsev, as quoted by Reuters on Sunday, March 13.

Mizintsev said Ukrainian troops laid mines in residential neighborhoods and destroyed bridges and roads.

Russian officials previously accused Ukrainian troops of shooting their own people and then tried to blame Moscow,

Ukraine and Western countries deny the accusations.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday, March 9 urged Russia to "stop the bloodshed now" following a Moscow airstrike on a hospital in Ukraine.

"The recent attack on a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, where there is a mother and child ward, is horrific", Guterres said on Twitter.

"Civilians must pay the highest price for a war that has nothing to do with them", said the secretary-general. "This senseless violence must end. Stop the bloodshed now", he added.

Mariupol City Council revealed that Russian troops dropped several bombs. Through their Telegram channel, they shared a photo of the location of one of the dropped bombs.

Russian troops direct attack on maternity hospital. People, children buried in the rubble. Abominable! How much longer will the world be a henchman who ignores terror? Close the skies (Ukraine) right now! Stop killing! You have power, but you look like a loss of humanity", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said via Telegram.

At least 516 civilians have been killed and 908 injured in Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighboring country, according to UN figures. The actual number of victims is feared to be much higher.

More than 2.1 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).